AMD announces departure of unknown director

AMD sent us a note today to make sure we were “aware of an 8-K filing we made this morning announcing that Frank Clegg will not stand for re-election to our board of directors.”

This news failed to peak our attention much, mainly because we had no idea who Frank was, nor why he was leaving. If it had been Robert Palmer standing down, now that would have been news, TechEye’s esteemed editor pointed out. After all, he’s Addicted to Love, Robert Palmer.

After a bit of Googling, however, it turns out that Mr. Clegg has been on the AMD’s board for three years, after a couple of stints as Microsoft Canada President (From 1991 to 1996 and from 2000 to 2005). And in the interim, Clegg also found time to act as Microsoft’s VP for central US and Canada, from 1996 to 2000.

It would also appear that the 54 year old is very, very rich, a feature not atypical in a board member for any company, even one like AMD which has had a rather bad financial innings in the last few years.

Tersley, we were told Clegg had “made the decision to not stand for re-election.”

So, why is he leaving? Did his wallet get too heavy? Was it a conflict of interest payments?

We put these questions to AMD spokesman, Drew Prairie, but received no response. We assume he was swamped with press inquiries over Mr. Clegg’s most sudden decision to depart. Either that or he was down the pub.